Embracing the CEO Role

My executive coach, Anna Maria, by the way, shout out to her. She said, “You have to stop saying you’re a reluctant CEO.” I say I started Boba guys, and I’m a CEO by mistake. It was my accident. I used to say this a lot. And I don’t say that anymore. But she said, because people hearing that will think you don’t want your job, and you’re just there just because you’re there.

And it’s almost like your duty. And nobody wants to be following somebody that says that. And she says, “You have to embrace being a CEO.” So, now I embrace being a CEO, now I will say, you know what? I’m not that great of a CEO, but I am a CEO. So, I do think I’m getting better. I talk a lot, but I think I’m pretty good at reading the room and really realizing how people think, and how they feel.

Sadly, people don’t realize in my seat, there’s very little I could do sometimes. I’m aware that we need to fix processes, or we have some growing pains. But in our phase of the company, what I know is normal, because I talked to other CEOs, my team doesn’t think is normal.

So, how do I put on a face that’s like, hey, this is part of the phase we’re in. So, I think I have to learn how to do that. That’s where I do think I wish I had a better, more objective, like poker face. My co-founder, Bin, is a lot better at that, honestly. His personality is built more like pure rational. If you know your Myers-Briggs, he’s a very strong NT, and I’m more of an NF. So, I’m better at motivating people, and he’s probably better at making purely robotic objective decisions, which I think CEOs—I wish I could make more of those.